Blindside...NOT The Movie

BLINDSIDE BLUES BAND – “Raised On Rock” CD ’10 (Grooveyard, US) – There was a problem that I had as a teenager which I will now briefly discuss. It developed shortly after I began attempting to play guitar and continued on for quite a time. The gist of the issue was the fact that I wanted to be Leslie West. Now, don’t get me wrong. I was of a slight build back then and any effort I would have made to actually look like The Great Fatsby would’ve involved eating an entire additional human being. No, I wanted to play guitar like him and so, long summer afternoons were spent in my bedroom, studying a bootleg 8-track tape of “Flowers Of Evil” that I’d bought at Ocean City for $ 2. I hung on every squawking false harmonic, every blistering distorted rhythm, every bluesy lick and tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to emulate them. A shocking time came for me when Mountain fragmented in the early ‘70’s. Leslie & Corky Laing (drums) hooked up with ex-Cream bassist Jack Bruce and I bought their ’72 debut “Why Dontcha” with some trepidation in Pappalardi’s absence. The trepidation vanished when I heard what would become one of my favourite tracks of all time, the monstrous “Love Is Worth The Blues.” It was a seething, heavy slow-paced crusher that, in truth, borrowed heavily from The Stones’ “Play With Fire” (enough that WBL would later do the song live using Mick’s lyrics). It’s caustic riff would also burst forth from my own guitar more than any other during 1972.

And so, that brings us to the BLINDSIDE BLUES BAND. You see, a quick gander at their new disc “Raised On Rock” will yield the knowledge that sitting at Track # 10 position is none other than a cover of “Love Is Worth The Blues.” What this does is instantly make me a fan of Mike Onesko (guitar, vocals and mastermind of this unit). Let’s just say that “L.I.W.T.B.” is not going to show up in the all-time top 10 of most-covered rock songs. Therefore, the fact that this cat understands what a motherfriggin’ beast it is made me want to buy a t-shirt with his visage emblazoned on the front before I even heard the record. But, I did put the CD in and instantly got my ass kicked by the title track. Ironically, the spectre of things Stone-ish raises it's head pronto with the “Can You Hear Me Knockin’” slide intro…and we’re off to the races. “Night Train” follows right behind with a mean, almost Montrose-kinda riff. Tasty lead fills abound all over the place, highlighting the powerful mid-range vocals belted out by Mr. Onesko. The dueling lead breaks by he and co-six-string conspirator Scott Johnson are lethal and Emery Ceo (drums) & Kier Staeheli (bass) are Church/Carmassi-solid. Listen to the section where they step to the fore around 3:39. That’s tight, bro! Through 12 cuts here the quartet builds on a solid blues base but mixes things up so as to produce a widely varied and immensely entertaining butt-kick of a listen. Check out the rambunctious & scorching “Bury The Axe.” Holy shit, Mike & Scott are ripping here. How ‘bout the grueling “War In The Streets” or “Take You Down,” where I’m hearing more vintage Montrose-styled riffing again. Still I can’t stop jamming on the 17+ minute climax of “Born With The Blues” (the guitarists both HAD to need treatment for friction burns after this one!) and the aforementioned “Love Is Worth The Blues.” Maybe I’ll get out my guitar again, cause after hearing this one, I think I want to be Mike Onesko…at least I won’t have to eat as much. Raised On Leslie

http://www.grooveyardrecords.com/
http://www.myspace.com/blindsidebluesband/
http://www.mikeoneskoband.com/